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Elves,Orcs & Hobbits bearing hot water bottles are taking over Mt.Ruapehu ... but it's all in a day's work filming LOTR.

Lord of the Rings actors Elijah Wood and Sean Austin,who play Hobbits Frodo & Sam,look perfectly happy clambering over rocks and taking advice during the filming of these scenes at Whakapapa, near the base of Ruapehu, recently. But the chill in the air obviously proved too much for them -- the pair sat on hot water bottles to keep warm during breaks in filming.

Our exclusive pictures show the shooting of scenes fom Frodo & Sam's jouney to Mordor. A series of marching scenes and battles between warriors and orcs were also shot. Often three scenes were filmed at any one time.

"The whole thing was very well organised," says an onlooker. "The equipment they're using is very high-tech and each of the filming units is linked by satellite, so director Peter Jackson can watch all of the scenes being filmed at once on screen monitors. Spectacular armour, including shields with intricate motifs, was worn for the battle scenes.

There are 700 cast & crew members involved in making the LOTR trilogy. They suffered a setback about three weeks ago, when a sudden dump of snow caused the roof of a costume tent to collapse. Some costumes needed repairing but no other problems arose during the four weeks spent filming at Whakapapa. The cast and crew

have returned to Wellington to continue filming and will head to the South Island soon.